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You’ve no doubt heard the saying, “less is more” too many times, but you probably never guessed that motto could be the secret to higher conversion rates. White space is merely the area around your landing page elements that are clear of any excess design. White space isn’t just a design preference though; it’s a conversion rate optimization strategy.

Why White Space is Important to your CRO Strategy

Branding and design are both essential complements to content when it comes to increasing your conversion rate, but what’s not on the page is just as important as what is. Here are five reasons why white space is imperative to your CRO strategy.

It’s more visually appealing

You’ve probably navigated away from a web page just because it looked terrible and that negatively affected how you felt about the business. You’re not a bad person, and you’re not alone; 48% of people say website design is the number one factor in determining a company’s credibility.

Including white space on a landing page provides a cleaner and more modern look, which in turn sends a signal to visitors that you’re a company that puts effort into their work.

Attention spans are short

You’ve probably heard the statistic that our attention span is now shorter than that of a goldfish. While a study by Microsoft found that on average attention spans have decreased since 2000, and people are “better at identifying what they want/don’t want to engage with.” So, now you have even less time to make an impression that leads to conversion.

One way to make the most of this decreased attention span is to lay out content in an “F pattern.” Content in the form of web pages, blog posts, and emails are often scanned in roughly an “F” shape. A reader scans the headline first, which creates the top bar of the “F.” Next, readers scan down the page on the left-hand side to see if anything catches their eye and will scan left to right on anything that stands out. Create an engaging headline and leave space around relevant sections of information so that scanning is easy.

Another interesting theory to support white space is Unbounce’s “attention ratio.” The attention ratio is the ratio between the number of actions you can take on a page versus the number of actions you should take. For example, a landing page should have one main objective, typically to input contact information by signing up. Therefore, the number of actions a visitor should take is one. A landing page scarce in white space and abundance in distractions and potential actions only takes away from the main objective of the page.

In Unbounce’s example below, a home page can have an attention ration up to 100:1, which means visitors have more options of where they would like to explore on the site. An internal page is a bit more focused, and a landing page for a specific marketing campaign should have an attention ratio of 1:1.

Learn More About How to Increase Your Website's Conversion Rate

It reduces distractions (and bounce rates)

Now that we know attention spans are short and decisions are made quickly, let’s consider why we don’t want a landing page riddled with options. A landing page that has little white space is both distracting and exhausting to look at. When the desired action or next step isn’t clear, annoyed visitors will navigate away from your page just to keep from going crazy.

Even if your essential elements, such as your contact form, are visually differentiated, a distracting web page confuses readers and sends them running for the hills.

The landing page below is an example of what not to do. While the company has impressive credentials and likely can provide immense value, readers won’t know where to look or what to do on a page like this. Eliminating unnecessary elements, reconfiguring the layout of the page, and adding white space around critical elements would improve both the design and conversion rate.

Pulls attention to most important CTA

Adding white space to your landing page not only reduces distractions, but it also pulls attention to your most important CTA.

Unbounce analyzed 20,000 lead generation pages to find the link between conversion rate and the number of links on a page. What they found strengthens the argument for white space. They discovered that the average number of links on a page was between four and five, but the highest conversion rates went to pages with three or fewer.

Think of white space and limited links as a funnel that gets increasingly smaller. By eliminating distractions and making the next step abundantly clear, you direct visitors towards a single desired action at the bottom of the funnel.

Increasing the amount of white space and decreasing the number of links on a page also plays into the paradox of choice. A now-famous study found that giving shoppers six jam options instead of 24 led to sales that were ten times higher.

Easier to read

Another principle of psychology that supports white space on landing pages is cognitive fluency. Essentially, cognitive fluency is the measure of how easy something is to process and, unsurprisingly, people like things that are easy to process. Landing pages with clean and minimal design are easy on the eyes, and high contrast between the text and background make your message pop.

White Space Design Inspiration

Just like product offerings or sales copy, white space isn’t a one size fits all strategy, and it certainly doesn’t have to be boring. Here are a few of our favorite uses of white spaces in web page design.

Google

Google’s home page may be the ultimate example of white space. While this page lives on a far end of the white space spectrum, you can’t argue with the fact that the minimal design points you directly where you’re supposed to look.

Any landing or sales page you create will likely have more to it than Google’s home page, but it’s a reminder that it’s hard to have too much white space.

Exact Data

Exact Data proves that white space doesn’t have to be white. If there are colors that are more suited to your brand, use them. The idea of white space is to leave breathing room around important elements, no matter what color the “white space.” Just keep in mind the need for readability, so refrain from making your web page a rainbow of different colors and fonts.

Ahrefs

Here’s another example of a site that uses non-white white-space effectively. The bold headline and subheadline funnel the reader’s eyes down to an eye-catching big, orange CTA button. The simple design leads customers exactly where they need to look, and makes the decision of what to click on straightforward.

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